10 Year Return on my portfolio vs. Total Return on S&P 500 (including dividends) (Source for S&P500 returns = en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26P_500 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26P_500 ) Year, Me, S&P 500 2005, 13%, 4.91% 2006, 14%, 15.79% 2007, 22%, 5.49% 2008, (40%), (37%) 2009, 44%, 26.46% 2010, 22%, 15.06% 2011, (5%), 2.11% 2012, 13.3%, 16% 2013, 23%, 32.39% 2014, 13%, 13.69% My portfolio had a cumulative ten year return of +148% vs. +109% for the S&P 500. That translates into a 10 year average annual return of 9.51% vs. 7.65%